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This week, which marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, is as opportune a time as any for legislation introduced by U.S. Sens. Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin to honor an early advocate for the disabled in post-war America.

The duo are calling for a Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded to Tim Nugent, who founded the first higher educational program for wounded and disabled soldiers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign after World War II.

He’s the guy who put in time designing curb cuts and wheelchair-accessible bus routes for students.

His work “confronted the bias of the general public by bringing students with disabilities into the mainstream of college campuses and societies,” Kirk said in a floor speech on the resolution, which would bestow one of the highest civilian honors on Nugent.

“Many of the architectural accessibility standards and laws of the United States, including the welcoming Americans with Disabilities Act, trace back directly to innovations created by Nugent,” he said.

Never an organization to let an Aaron Schock story go to waste — even now that he’s in private life — Politico asked the burning question that literally dozens of people have been wondering: Where is Aaron Schock this week.

The answer, they found, is that he’s on a vacation to Peru, apparently climbing Machu Picchu with his father.

That’s all well and good, though it does suggest a certain fascination with Latin America, where he’s been to at least four separate countries since March 2014.

We’ll know Tuesday if there’s a race at the polls, but there’s no 18th District fundraising contest.

State Sen. Darin LaHood has outraised all his opponents combined by a margin of 10-to-1.

Whether you think that’s a measure of his strength and appeal or a measure of the degree GOP leaders are attempting to put him into the seat depends largely on whether your thinking aligns with LaHood or with his chief opponent, Mike Flynn.

The Peoria Republican reports having brought in $717,281 during the fundraising period that ended in mid-June, according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission at the end of June. He spent $406,958 and had $519,662 on hand for the remainder of the campaign. After the reporting period closed, LaHood also raised an additional $77,400.

For what it’s worth, LaHood raised more in individual donations from central Illinois than Flynn did in his entire fundraising haul.

Flynn was at a distinct cash disadvantage, but he was marshaling his limited resources. He brought in $63,742 in contributions through June 17, but spent only $31,342, leaving him with some $32,399 in the bank.

But he, too, reported more contributions after the reporting period closed. Since his June 17 cutoff, he boasts an additional $13,281 in funds brought in.

Then there’s poor Don Rients, outspent 100 to 1. He reports raising $6,827 for the period and spending $6,076. The lion’s share of that — $5,727 — comes from the candidate himself. He lists only one other campaign contributor outside his household, who gave him $500. Rients’ wife provided the remaining $450.

His biggest single expense was $2,700 to hire people to help collect signatures. Rients has $751 left for the home stretch.

Only one of the two Democrats in the race filed a report. Quincy civics teacher Rob Mellon didn’t file anything, based on a review of the FEC website.

His opponent, Springfield insurance agent and District 186 School Board member Adam Lopez, spent everything he raised and then some.

He reported receipts of $8,138 for the quarter and expenses of $8,400. It all came from individual contributions, with nary a dime coming from PACs or political party committees.

The donations all came from Springfield, including his largest check — a very generous $2,700 from an executive assistant at Country Financial, the firm that Lopez works at.
Lopez also loaned himself $400, so he’s left with a munificent sum of $137 in the bank.

Were we in his position, we’d be cautious not to spend that all in one place – especially since he also shows $10,495 in additional campaign debt. There’s a metaphor for fiscal responsibility in there somewhere.

Woe unto the voter looking online at candidate websites for any help in making their decision on who to vote for in the special 18th District primary elections Tuesday.

They’ll find sites for all candidates that are nearly devoid of substance — and in some cases at odds with the facts.

For the most part, all five candidates are content to stick with bumper-sticker, sound bite reiterations of their policies, giving voters no in-depth clue of how they’d govern. With functionally limitless space, this is the place to go into detail, to stake out positions, to have a stance that goes deeper than a puddle.

Alas, ‘tis not to be.

Give candidate Mike Flynn some credit. Often he’ll go on for three whole paragraphs about a topic on his single “issues” page of the website. It’s at least a slightly deeper explanation of what he believes, along with some specific proposals, particularly as relates to his ideal tax policy.

He’s also the only candidate who seems to mention his opponent in this election.

Of course, in doing so he manages to crucially misstate a few facts. In one notable example, he says LaHood “was appointed to the State Senate by a Democratic Judge.” In actuality, LaHood was appointed under the exact same procedure as every other appointed legislator — a vote of the party chairmen in the affected district (ensuring the appointee is the same political party as the resigned member), with weighted votes based upon turnout in the last election. No Democrat had a vote in LaHood’s appointment.

In another example, Flynn takes off after LaHood’s father, Ray LaHood. He claims that Ray served “for 24 years” in Congress and was “the only Republican” to serve in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet in his seven years in office. Ray LaHood served only 14 years in Congress. And he was the only GOP’er in the Cabinet only if you don’t count Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel or Robert McDonald. Do defense or VA secretaries not count?

Darin LaHood himself takes minimal stances on the issues of the day. Nary more than a couple sentences on just four items — health care, jobs, national security and spending — though he does have a nice, slick picture of an old farm tractor up at the top of the page, so kudos for that, I guess.

If possible, candidate Don Rients has even less about his beliefs, summing them up in single sentences. He does deserve credit for making the website himself for his low-budget campaign, though.

On the Democratic side, don’t look too long at Adam Lopez’s website. Otherwise you’ll find placeholder text on it. That’s not quite what you’d expect after having spent $1,350 as a down payment on the website and having another $1,350 in bills outstanding. By the way, he gives you a whole paragraph each on jobs/economy, health care and immigration reform. So I guess that’s all that matters.

Rob Mellon’s site is chockablock with material on issues — nine whole topics, including a multi-point jobs plan. They are, of course, all left over from his 2014 race with little indication that they’ve been tweaked in the intervening 18 months. But he does say that early voting has begun in the race, making it current as of late May.

Interesting details from Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun-Times about personal financial disclosure forms from lawmakers that point to a lengthy “cultural exchange” trip taken by U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock and three other members of Congress last year.

Sweet reports that the weeklong trip also included some non-official time with a two-day visit to the beach.

The trip, paid for by Brazil’s government and focusing on agriculture and agribusiness, included Schock, two other Republicans — Reps. Jason Smith of Missouri and Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania — and an Illinois Democrat with Peoria ties, Rep. Robin Kelly.
Only Schock and Smith ended up going on the beach excursion, the report notes.

A variety of staffers were also along, Sweet reports, including Schock chief of staff Mark Roman, his district office scheduler Shea Ledford and photographer Jonathon Link, who didn’t come onto the Schock office payroll until September.

Why a district office scheduler and a photographer were necessary for that trip are, of course, valid questions.

Ditto the choice to invite Kelly whose district does — the piece notes — have 1,800 farmers, but isn’t exactly known as an agricultural part of the state. She also isn’t on an agriculture-related committee, and she’ll be the first to tell you in her New York accent that she’s a city gal. She does, however, have at least a passing familiarity with Schock, going back to her time on the Bradley University board of trustees, which began the first time right around when Schock graduated BU.

Smith is a fourth-generation family farmer. Meehan is a lawyer and former prosecutor.